Kishikawa-sensei returned to her usual dignified appearance, and right now she's giving us instructions to start the volleyball match.
The members of the various teams are now gathering, and after a while, Sensei blew the whistle to indicate the start of the games; after she did that, she looked at me, then she smiled at me. For the people around me, they interpreted that as a way to show that Sensei was satisfied with defeating me.
In the first game, another team from Class A and a team from Class B played against each other. For the second game, it will be our team's turn, but since Jun is absent, we borrowed one member from another team.
"Yo... yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Umihara-kun."*
"Ah, yeah. Same to you."
I don't know why they are being respectful to the point of using honorifics when talking to me. If I had to guess, maybe it's because they find me intimidating. That's why I'd be really glad if Jun were with me, because when he's with me, the atmosphere around me softens. So, Jun, hurry up and get cured.
"Then we'll start after we've decided who's going to serve first."
Kishikawa-sensei then called both our team and the opposing team to come up to the court. I was automatically made the captain because of my attendance number. I then played rock-paper-scissors with the opponent's representative to determine who would serve first. Since I won the rock-paper-scissors game, we are going to serve first.
Since in volleyball everyone is going to have a turn to serve, the positions don't really matter that much, but right now I'm on the left side of the vanguard. As this was already my second time in a volleyball class, my role in the game was pretty much decided already.
Even though this is just part of the class, since this is a game, it's only natural that I want to win. When I was thinking about that, a student from Class B sent a disturbing look at me from the other side of the net. There are times when I get into fights at school, but this is the first time that it looks like someone from Class B wants to fight with me.
"Hey, Umihara. Just because you have good grades and a good face, it doesn't mean that you can get carried away."
There are a lot of ways to incite a fight, but I don't think I will hear this fossil-like way of provocation; seriously, it's so old and cliche that I want some research institution to preserve it. Despite this, I'm still naive because the provocation had irritated me slightly.
"Wha... are you looking for a fight?"
"No, I didn't say anything. By the way, do you want to compete with me in this volleyball match?"
"Tha... that's right. I, Tetsuya Yamazaki, will prove in this match that I'm better than you."
"Yeah, nice one, Yamazaki!"
"Look at them; they are scared of you, Yamazaki!"
Even if we are in a preparatory school, there are still quite a few students who become a bit relaxed in their second year and fall into a state of what could be called "petty delinquency"... that's what I observed through the years, but I'm sure I'm not that far off the mark. I guess since they think it's difficult to challenge me when it comes to grades, they are going to compete with me in physical education.
"Then let's do this, though I'm not that good at volleyball."
"Ye.. yeah, just like what I wanted."
It seems that just by talking normally, I would be seen as intimidating.
I then thought that if Sensei saw me like this, she might get a bad impression of me. That's why I looked at Sensei, who was standing in front of the referee's seat, to confirm.
When I casually looked directly at Sensei's jersey, I almost let out a strange, frog-like voice. Maybe it's because the referee's seat stands out, but unlike when she was stretching with me, the front of her jersey is now tightly closed all the way up.
However, even if Sensei is wearing a custom-made jersey that has a slightly wider chest area, I'm still worried that she will have a hard time refereeing our match. But it looks like my worries are unfounded because when Kishikawa-sensei speaks with a cool face, like a knight academy instructor, while ignoring the weight of her overly abundant chest armor, it looks like nothing is wrong with her.
"Since this is a combination of two different classes, go get along and fight each other fairly."
""Yes!""
Sensei's expression didn't even change when she heard and saw the students, regardless of whether they were friends or foes, replying like well-disciplined judo club members. I know that she only shows her sweet side in front of me. But that unchanging expression in front of others is the reason she is called "Female Knight".
"Everyone, let's do this!"
Our class president serves while shouting. Looking at him standing and readying to serve, I can tell that he's good at volleyball, as he is trying to aim his underhand serve carefully to make sure that the ball is in.
His target location was in the center of the enemy's field of rearguard. The enemy team seems to have noticed this and is now preparing to intercept the serve. It seems that they already experienced this once in a game with another class.
"All right!"
"Toss it to me! I'll hit it!"
When Yamazaki on the other side of the net asked for a toss, he then looked at me, and anticipating this, attack, me and my teammate in the center both jumped together to block the incoming attack.
But our leap appears to be in vain because it is not Yamazaki who receives the toss and fires the attack; it is the player behind him who does so.
It was a brilliant attack that fooled us, and they got a point because of it. After a while, Kishikawa-sensei blows the whistle.
"Di... did you see that? Are you going to admit now that I'm better than you?"
It's still too early to celebrate because it's only just one play, but Yamazaki appears to be in a good mood after tricking me into blocking ahead.
He can do that because he knew in advance that our class president would be the one to serve and that I would be positioned on the left side of the attack zone. That's why he's still grinning while he looks at me.
"Please refrain from talking during the game. The right to serve has just been transferred."
When Kishikawa-sense receives the ball, she then throws it into our opponents' court. Yamazaki then whispered to me as if there was still something that he wanted to say before the play started.
"How is it, Umihara? How does it feel to look pathetic in front of Sensei?"
If he insulted me alone, then I would just ignore him and I would still be fine, but when Sensei's name came up, I was even more surprised that I easily got pissed off.
"...Did you say something?"
"Hiiii!"
I've done it again, and it looks like he's really scared of me now; this won't turn out well, as I'm sure rumors about this will be spread in my class sooner or later.
I know that I shouldn't do this, but right now I have no choice but to make the most of the image that the people around me have of me.
I then gathered my teammates to tell them the strategy that we would be using.
"U... Umihara isn't that quite impossible to do, even for you? I haven't had enough practice doing a quick set yet, so I'm sure my toss wouldn't go as you plan."
"It's okay if they score using this strategy, then I'll take the responsibility."
Surprisingly, I'm not that pissed off right now, as I'm rather calm when I explain to them our strategy.
I can't show an unsightly appearance in front of Kishikawa-sensei, but since Class B has ignited my fighting spirit, which rarely wakes up, I'm going to do my best in this match.
The opponent's side then hits the serve. Of course, just because I asked for a toss, that doesn't mean that an easy serve will come up every time.
"I'm sorry, Umihara."
The trajectory of the ball deviates slightly. On the other side of the net, I could feel that Yamazaki was laughing at me again.
If he thought that I couldn't hit it, then he's very wrong.
"What?!"
I then jumped backwards to match the path that the ball would take, and I hit the ball into a spike. The ball then passed Yamazaki's face and bounced in the corner of the opponents' court. After a while, Kishikawa-sensei blew the whistle.
"He... hey, just now, did he just aim at you?"
"This... is bad...Who made him play seriously?"
"Don't look at me like that! You guys were on board on this too.!"
Perhaps because I made some sort of acrobatic movements in the air, it looks like I landed on my feet the wrong way, and my feet feel like they got injured by that.
But I can still do this. If I ignore it and don't think about it, then there's no problem at all.
"Nice spike, Umihara!"
"Let's continue and keep attacking them from here on! Uhmmmm... Umihara, that's fine, right?"
"Yeah. We just got surprised by their first play, but that won't happen anymore. Our opponent didn't have the time to react to our quick attack, so let's do that again."
When I looked over to the other side of the court, I noticed Yamazaki was terrified by what had happened; he must have thought my spike earlier on was aimed at his head, but even so, he appears to have some fight left in him.
I'm sure if Kishikawa-sensei saw me getting agitated, I would leave a bad impression on her.
In the middle of the class, we are nothing more than a student and a teacher. That's why I can't look at Sensei... but...
When we rotated, I then looked at the right side of the court, where Sensei is currently located, and I saw that she was sitting on the referee's bench, watching our game seriously.
Sensei then blows the whistle, and the serve then flies to our opponents' court. When I glanced at Sensei's face for a moment, I regretted that I got pissed off so easily. That's why I decided to switch my mindset.
Note:
1. I'll leave it as Japanese because it's hard to find words to convey what his teammate is trying so say, basically his team mate is being so honorific and respectful to him that's why he said that, basically it can be translated to Please to work with you or something along those line.